Op-Ed
What to expect in the NBA’s second half
A surprisingly entertaining all-star weekend has come and gone and it’s time for NBA franchises to buckle down.The final stretch of the season i...
Teacher who gave all deserves to be honored
Area resident Jim Roberts has been on a crusade recently, working to honor a Surry County teacher who gave her life trying to protect one of her stude...

Local Abuses Don’t Boost Economy
RALEIGH — Thomas Jefferson had lots to say about lots of things. As the North Carolina General Assembly begins its 2017 session and new Gov. Roy...
January 21st, 2017 updated: January 21st, 2017. |

Digging deeper into state tax changes
I have a confession: even though I work in the news industry, I don’t always keep up with news that happens far from me.I keep up with happening...
The News & Record wrote a column about a woman who worked for decades as its queen of societal and cultural events. Martha Long’s long caree...

Dealing with the emotional fallout
As I write this, it is Tuesday afternoon. Election Day is winding down. The polls are dead — either because people did early voting or are waiti...

Charlotte is the leader in diversity?
Charlotte became a hotbed of political fighting this year with the passing of HB 2, the bathroom law that has caused many groups to label North Caroli...

Resource fair about lending a helping hand
Helping someone help themselves was one of the primary goals of the recent “Community Supervision Resource Fair” held at the Surry County ...

Netflix offers intriguing Cobain feature
Over the weekend, I was perusing Netflix’s new releases when I came across an interesting documentary into the death of Kurt Cobain.“Soake...

Charlotte’s red-headed stepchild
The Carolina Panthers are going to the Super Bowl.Football fans from all over the country are suddenly jumping on the Panther bandwagon. YouTube video...
Study tells what affects migrant decisions
RALEIGH — The U.S. Census Bureau just confirmed what everyone already suspected: North Carolina now has more than 10 million residents. We’...

How do we keep our kids (of all ages) safe from danger?
On Saturday I drove 266 miles up to Richmond, Virginia, to visit my daughter on Parents Weekend at VCU.Yes, I’d been to the campus twice before,...

Panther QB needs to show consistency
The Carolina Panthers are now 5-0.The talking heads on ESPN and the NFL Network are suddenly jumping on the bandwagon so fast they might deflate the t...

Passing time at 3 in the morning
People who know me well generally can say three things about me.One, I like to cut up. If I can’t have a laugh and make others laugh, then it be...
My wild idea for jobs creation
A friend posed a question at a dinner: if you were president, what would you do to make a difference.My first reaction was, “Can we make a diffe...
Voting district maps should be impartial
From The Fayetteville Observer/TNSIt’s been more than four years and two state elections since the latest North Carolina voting districts were c...

How a life should be lived
It was a cool spring day in 1969, and I was a very young child. We had just moved to the house that would be the family homeplace for the next four de...
August 3rd, 2015 updated: August 3rd, 2015. |

Living by the numbers
When I was growing up my mom used to buy me books where you colored a picture by the numbers. When you were finished, if you followed the numbers corr...